"The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco," is a quote attributed to Mark Twain. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that he (or anyone else in fact) actually spoke or wrote these words, but if he had then they would surely apply just as well to New Zealand.

When we arrived in Wanaka on Thursday, for example, it was beautifully sunny and hot. Today is Sunday and the weather is even better. For most of Friday and Saturday, however, it chucked it down with rain constantly, forcing us to huddle damply inside our tin can with only a hot water bottle as a source of heat.

Last night was the coldest we have experienced here and when we woke up we found out why. It had snowed on the surrounding hills. Yes, it had snowed in what is the southern hemisphere equivalent of June. And it's not that we are very high up here - Wanaka is about 1,000 feet above sea level and although there are proper mountains around the lake, the snow was on hills only about 500 feet above the town.

Wanaka itself is by a long way the nicest place we have been to so far. It's only small, but has a nice balance between tranquil scenery, sporting activities and social life. The town is magnificently situated at the southern end of a large lake, with mountains forming a striking backdrop. If you're an active sort of person, Wanaka has everything from skydiving to hill walking, from paragliding to golf and from flying to fishing. And there are also a pleasing number of decent-looking restaurants and bars.

We went to a Mexican restaurant called Amigos on Friday and were surprised by the excellent quality of the food. Even more remarkable was the quality of the draught beer - a local brew called (aptly given the proximity to winter ski runs) Brewski. I think we've gone on about this before, but most New Zealand draught beer is too cold, too fizzy and too lacking in taste. This beer, however, wasn't served at a temperature suitable only for the Aussie Outback, didn't have the texture of Coca Cola, and tasted like a cross between a delicate bitter and a crisp lager.

On the other hand, Wanaka is apparently in the middle of a crime wave. We woke up in our holiday park on Friday to the sight of a police officer examining a car belonging to a group of four youngish people who were camping here. We found out from one of them later that one of the car door locks wasn't working properly and someone had taken advantage to get inside in the middle of the night and steal a couple of wallets foolishly left inside.

The policeman told them that the last such case of theft from a holiday park had been a couple of years ago - so in percentage terms, a single incident represents an epidemic in Daily Mail terms. Interestingly, the officer took a lot of time on the case and even dusted the car for fingerprints. In the UK, they do that only for murder, don't they?

We hope that we don't become the next victims of crime, because Katy has bought (gasp!) another TWO items of jewellery!!! We found a craft fair in town with stalls displaying a range of items quite different to those in other towns. One stall was selling pendants and rings made from old water taps and Katy bought a 'Cold' one of each - probably in response to the previous night's weather. Yes, they sound bizarre, but they actually look really good. We'll take some photos as describing them is difficult.

Richard